7:28 am

Tue November 20, 2012

Rebekah Brooks, who rose to the top spot at Rupert Murdoch's News International.

Oli ScarffGetty Images

British officials today filed more charges against former top editors at some of Rupert Murdoch's newspapers in the U.K., this time for allegedly paying nearly $160,000 to a ministry of defense official to get information.

That information allegedly included the "Green Book" that lists phone numbers and other contact details for members of Britain's royal family.

Brooks, Coulson and others have previously professed their innocence. When he was called before a committee of parliament to testify about things his journalists had done, Murdoch called it "the most humble day of my life" and said he was "appalled and ashamed" when he heard that his now-defunct News of the World had hacked the cellphone of a missing teenage girl, who it turned out had been murdered.

During the investigation of alleged payments to public officials for information, "the Metropolitan police have arrested 52 people ... including 21 journalists at the Sun, according to The Guardian. "Among the public officials arrested are a member of the armed forces, a prison official, and police officers."